AMCON tags debtors economic saboteurs

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has described debtors of the corporation as economic saboteurs that should be made to fulfil their obligations for economic growth.

The corporation described as unacceptable the way economy was “bleeding” while the debts owed it by 350 Nigerians should have been enough to fund the deficit in the 2017 budget.

The Managing Director of the Corporation, Mr. Ahmed Kuru, who made the declaration yesterday in Enugu said that henceforth it would move hard on such debtors with a view to freeing some money for the economy to grow.

Speaking during a retreat between AMCON and members of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Kuru said the obligors owed the Corporation about N2.5 trillion, adding that the prevailing situation had hampered business models in the country.

He said that it was more intriguing that the debtors had sued in various courts across the country either by disputing the debt or claiming damages against AMCON.

“Our recent assessment of obligors identified 350 accounts that represent about 80 per cent of AMCON’s current exposure of N2.5 trillion as at December 31, 2016. Consequently, we have repositioned our debt recovery approach to strengthen legal and credit restructuring units to collaborate on the aforementioned accounts termed defaulters,” he said.

He said the corporation was established in 2010 to intervene in the banking sector to maintain economic and social stability in Nigeria due to the unprecedented rise in nonperforming loans.

“AMCON acquired over 13,000 of such loans worth N3.7 trillion from 22 banks and injected N2.2 trillion as financial accommodation to 10 banks in order to prevent systemic failure.

“This intervention helped stabilise the financial system as about N3.66 trillion of depositors’ funds and interbank takings were protected and approximately 14,000 jobs were saved,” he said.

Kuru said that AMCON had so far recovered N716.1 billion from obligors of which cash and assets accounted for 45 per cent and 55 per cent respectively. He called for legislative intervention to enable the corporation overcome the bottlenecks militating against debt recovery.

In an opening remark, the Chairman, House Committee on Banking and Currency, Mr. Jones Onyereri, said such retreats fell within the legislative oversight ambit of the committee.

Onyereri said the exercise enabled the National Assembly to be duly informed on how to straighten the operational efficiency of the corporation through legislative instruments, stating that AMCON was created to assist the Nigerian financial sector to achieve stability by buying toxic assets of eligible financial institutions.

“I find it troubling that while some of these obligors frustrate AMCON’s recovery efforts by exploiting the court system, they continue to do business with the Federal Government,” he said.

Onyereri assured that ideas reached at the close of the exercise would receive the support of the committee with a view to amending AMCON Act for greater efficiency.